By Alex Winter
Sep 11, 2024
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Facing Business Growth Challenges? Here's the Step You Might be Missing [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 62]
By Alex Winter
Sep 11, 2024
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This transcript has been generated by AI and not checked for accuracy.
Chris Duprey
0:00:00
There's one thing that successful companies do when they launch endless customers. And that my friends is what we're about to talk about.
Alex Winter
0:00:21
Join us for Impact Live 2024 in Hartford, Connecticut this October 14th through the 16th. Over three days business owners, CEOs, and marketing and sales leaders will learn proven strategies to drive business growth. Attend expert-led sessions on marketing, sales, leadership, and AI and get a chance to network with industry pros just like yourself. Discover how companies like yours are dominating their markets. Secure your your spot at impactplus.com backslash impact-5.
Alex Winter
0:00:52
And for all of our Endless Customers listeners, we have an exclusive discount code that'll save you 100 bucks. So when you're on the checkout page, just enter the code ECPOD100 in all caps for $100 off. We'll see you there at Impact Live 2024
Alex Winter
0:01:07
up in Hartford October 14th through the 16th.
Alex Winter
0:01:10
Welcome back to Endless Customers,
Alex Winter
0:01:12
the show that teaches you how to earn trust and win more business in the age of AI. I'm your host, Alex Winter, and today we're joined by Chris Dupre, who is a principal coach here at Impact.
Alex Winter
0:01:23
Chris, what's up, man? Welcome back.
Chris Duprey
0:01:25
Thank you.
Alex Winter
0:01:26
What's going on with you?
Chris Duprey
0:01:27
You know, just lots of workshops, lots of talking to folks, lots of seeing Endless Customers in action, seeing artificial intelligence being used in it so happy to talk about you've been busy
Alex Winter
0:01:40
so Chris and I are close friends outside of work but I haven't seen you because you've been traveling I feel like you've been all over the place talking about AI teaching AI working with clients so we got a lot to catch up on yeah I think we got a good topic today because we're talking about endless customers but more specifically if someone's read the book or they've listened to the show or they've heard you speak or heard anything that we've been talking about with Endless Customers,
Alex Winter
0:02:03
I feel like they're not sure what the best place is to start or how to get started right away. So from your perspective and experience, what's the best way to get things moving?
Chris Duprey
0:02:13
Yeah, so like with almost any initiative, right, so if you're going to go launch Endless Customers, think of this as similar to any other major change in your position you're likely not doing the majority of the stuff that's in that that would be considered on the customers right
Chris Duprey
0:02:35
so we have to get everybody well i mean everybody i mean everybody in the organization aligned around what is this new thing
Chris Duprey
0:02:48
how does this new thing impact us? Why the heck are we changing our strategy, our philosophy, the way in which we go after business? Right, and so you have to start that. Now, I've been a chief operating officer, I've run organizations.
Chris Duprey
0:03:07
Lots of the times you have strong, strong-willed leaders like, hey, we're gonna do it. And that's a recipe for failure. Because, you know, think about when people resist, or people don't fully engage. It's because they don't understand.
Chris Duprey
0:03:22
Yeah, that's definitely the main culprit. There's no buy-in, because there's a misunderstanding or a fear. Yeah, yeah, and so if we know that most initiatives go to die because of resistance or fear or lack of participation well the first thing we got to do is get everybody all fired up and educated on what it is that we're doing so to answer your question if we
Chris Duprey
0:03:57
are going how do I start my endless customers journey I just read the book. I'm so fired up. I was so fired up I made my leadership team read the book and now they're all fired up. Like, what do I do? You have what we call an alignment day.
Chris Duprey
0:04:14
Right? This is where, at a minimum, anybody that faces clients. Now, this is on the pre-sale side, the post-sale side, the customer success side, like, if they talk to the outside world at all
Chris Duprey
0:04:31
about the thing that you do, the products you sell, the services you render, they need to be there.
Alex Winter
0:04:37
They gotta be in this alignment.
Chris Duprey
0:04:38
Along with all leadership. Okay. Now, I love having everybody there, so no matter what they do, they're there so that everybody gets the same Education the same understand got it so it doesn't just have to be sales and leadership
Chris Duprey
0:04:53
Ideally you want everybody and because ultimately if it's one team one dream right if everyone's tracking and believing in the same thing It's only gonna help expedite the whole process. Yeah, and if you only put sales and marketing there you miss Right so you have sales and marketing and leadership. You're missing the fourth rung of the stool Which is customers some folks focus for success on the call customer service some call it
Chris Duprey
0:05:18
operations uh... whatever we call it we're talking about the people that do the thing or provide the service or insure the product is delivered like people engaging with the customer
Chris Duprey
0:05:31
they had their proverbial finger on the pulse of yet what happened but they all have to be there to everybody's got to understand not only what we're doing, not only how we're doing it, but more importantly like why we are doing this thing.
Alex Winter
0:05:46
The why is critical. So this alignment day happens, what can people be expecting during this day? Is it a full day? What does that look like? Can you paint that picture?
Chris Duprey
0:05:55
Yeah, so it's a full day. Ideally, it's in person, in your, you know, you bring everybody together. If you're a remote organization, like, I get it, it's likely going to be remote. But the idea is you get everybody together, and it's, there's two parts. So in the morning, and this is, we're operating off of, we're going to do this from, like, let's say, is an endless customer's
Chris Duprey
0:06:31
training. This is where it's for everybody. So, if you're worried and going, oh my God, I've got to have everybody in my company or at least all the client-facing people in leadership for a whole day, no, no, no, no. You need a solid three to four hours for them. That's the training.
Chris Duprey
0:06:50
We'll talk about that in a second.
Chris Duprey
0:06:51
Got it.
Chris Duprey
0:06:51
The back half, whether you work through lunch or you do it after lunch, right, doesn't matter. The back half is a planning session, which we'll go into that as well. Now that's for the leadership team and maybe some of the marketers.
Alex Winter
0:07:08
Yeah, that makes sense. The first half of the day is really like buy-in, deeper understanding, really getting a sense of the why and removing some of the fear, worries, doubts, concerns, and then the second half of the day is, okay, cool, now that we get it, how do we apply this?
Chris Duprey
0:07:22
Yeah. Yeah. And so, in the training, we're going to go over the fundamentals of endless customers. We're going to really talk about those four things that we harp on in endless customers. We have to be willing to say what others in our industry won't say, we're going to have to be willing to show what they won't show, we're going to have to sell in ways they won't sell, we have to
Chris Duprey
0:07:43
be more human than all of them, right? So we're going to talk about all of that stuff. And if you've read the book, it's really taking people through that story, understanding how it all works, and transforming folks from the sales team, from the service team, from the leadership team, from I'm a sales professional, I'm a this, I'm a that, to oh, hey, I buy that way,
Chris Duprey
0:08:09
oh, wait a minute, so do my customers or my clients. So we help them see that if we take, we're gonna go through the big five, the five topics that everybody researches when they're in a consideration or buying phase.
Alex Winter
0:08:28
Buying phase, exactly.
Chris Duprey
0:08:29
Right?
Alex Winter
0:08:30
Yep.
Chris Duprey
0:08:31
Everybody does it. The funny thing is that nobody knows that they do it until you show them the big five and you talk about it and then you go, okay, so raise your hand if you've at least researched three of the five for something you've bought that was more than five hundred dollars and everybody raises their hand everybody wants to do the thing that's why
Chris Duprey
0:08:56
there the big five
Alex Winter
0:08:58
when it's it's uh... it's one of things were even happen to me when you explain the big five and almost seems kind of silly when you start to initially explain it but then when you started like when you search and you do this what it what it questions do you
Alex Winter
0:09:09
ask
Alex Winter
0:09:09
and that was when it's just all come together it's like oh yeah you have that
Chris Duprey
0:09:12
sort of light bulb aha moment yeah it's and listen it's not because anybody invented anything really cool it's think about the way that we interact with the Internet and AI right or things like Amazon right so unless you're going for a specific brand name of something and even if you are you might do this in Amazon too but you go to Amazon Amazon's got the big five there for you.
Chris Duprey
0:09:42
If you're thinking about different, right? So the idea is we get people to see that, and we get them to understand how that applies to the way that people just interact with, let's call it digital, right? So AI, the web, search, tool, right?
Chris Duprey
0:10:01
web search tool. You're like companies digital presence or in print. Yeah, so how all that works and how that can then work for them. Right? And so we get everybody all fired up about it. We also make them all go do a little work, right?
Chris Duprey
0:10:18
So it's, hey, so go break up into groups and start outlining, hey, what are the things you always talk about? Hey, what are the fears, worries, concerns, or issues that your buyers always have? What are the things you wish that they knew? Right? And so you actually get everybody, because remember, it's not just the sales marketing team in there now. So you get everybody thinking about this and contributing in some form or fashion to it, and then you make everybody
Chris Duprey
0:10:44
share it out so that they see like, oh, holy smokes, there's way more topics than we can think about. There's way more stuff we have to cover. I never even thought that we should talk about this or that. Right, right. But that's what happens when you do the endless customers training, which is the first half of alignment day. It gets everybody fired up and they understand not only what's gonna make it successful and what's not, what's gonna get in the way,
Chris Duprey
0:11:17
and all those things, but they understand how they can contribute, and they get to contribute on day one. Yeah, which is huge, and people want to be able
Alex Winter
0:11:26
to contribute, because it's important to feel like you're having a meaningful impact on what you're working on, and if you're passionate about it, which most people hopefully are in their jobs, but I think, too, it goes back to trying to think about the customer for so shifting the mindset from
Alex Winter
0:11:43
me me us us look at our company to now let's really think about how our potential customers are interacting with a brand how they how they make buying decisions and how we can meet them where they are
Chris Duprey
0:11:53
overseas and that's that's endless customers one-on-one right and and so this is the thing is that don't expect them to evolve of the book don't expect that right so again if we go back to your initial question what do you need to do if you're that business leader owner CEO whatever that
Chris Duprey
0:12:09
read the book and wants to get started you need to start with that because if you don't start with everybody getting it from the beginning it takes exponentially longer so you're gonna go look at the book in the typical journey, you're going to go, I should be here. And the reality is, is you missed that first piece, like you didn't learn how to crawl before you started to try to run. Yeah, you're leapfrogging. And it's just not
Chris Duprey
0:12:41
going to work that way. Right. So even when somebody's like, had the whole company, see Marcus speak at an event, I still mandate if they're going to work with me. We're doing alignment day.
Alex Winter
0:12:55
Yeah.
Chris Duprey
0:12:56
Because you heard the theory. Now we're going into how does this work at ABC Corp. Totally. And how it applies to the specific business industry.
Alex Winter
0:13:04
And then how are we going to use it? And how do we get everybody fired up? So once you get the buy-in, and we're gonna go back to this because I want to hear some stories about like I'm sure some people buy-in is quick and other people it may take a little bit longer, but for the second half of the alignment day, so once you get the buy-in people are excited, people are tracking, they're like yeah I'm
Alex Winter
0:13:25
picking up what you're putting down Chris. What is the planning phase start to look like as far as like okay second half of the day we're going into like we get it, we want it, we have the capacity to do it, and now like what is how do you formulate a plan around that?
Chris Duprey
0:13:39
So we do what we call a planning session. And this is, you know, again, so when we think about endless customers, you can do this with or without a coach. Strongly recommend that you use coaches, right, because they're going to hold you accountable. I mean, same way that EOS, you should use an implementer, at least when you get started. No, and accountability is the make or break in this situation. It really is.
Chris Duprey
0:14:03
But so here's the thing is, you have to start with what's the most important, which is, where are we trying to get to? Where are we trying to go? So the planning session is broken down into a few sections. The first is vision. Where are we trying to get to? Why are we doing this? You know, I asked a question like, two to three years from now, what's the business look like? Think revenue, customers, staff, locations. I'll give a couple ideas and then let the CEO go. Sure. Okay. Sure. And most CEOs that
Alex Winter
0:14:38
I've met are visionary so they should have some type of an idea of where they
Chris Duprey
0:14:41
see it. Yeah. So you start there. Then we might ask some questions like, okay, once we've unpacked that and really understand, so what needs to be true? Like true to make it like and you get your team talking about from their opinion so they just come from the training and now we're going okay so what needs to be true we're getting them engaged yeah then you take a look at okay so where are we towards that vision what's our marketing and sales statistics look like
Chris Duprey
0:15:08
so we get a clear picture and then we're gonna take you into the endless customer scorecard we're gonna cover those five topic areas. We're going to go through it. You're likely going to score sub 10, most likely, because it's very specific to executing those customers.
Alex Winter
0:15:24
And just for people who don't know out there, the scorecard's one out of 100, or what's
Chris Duprey
0:15:27
the scale? Yeah, so the scale, so it's 10 questions, zero to 10. Zero, we never do it. Ten, we consistently do this over and over and over and over and over.
Alex Winter
0:15:39
Got it.
Chris Duprey
0:15:40
Okay. Okay.
Alex Winter
0:15:42
So total score is 100.
Alex Winter
0:15:44
And most people are coming in at...
Chris Duprey
0:15:45
Most people are coming in under 10.
Alex Winter
0:15:46
Wow.
Chris Duprey
0:15:47
Okay. Right. So again, so you might be producing content, but are you producing the big five consistently and hitting these gates? Because it's very specific, right? So it doesn't matter.
Chris Duprey
0:16:00
The whole reason we take you through the scorecard is twofold. Understand what success from a, what are the skills, habits, and activities that we have to master, right? So, that is a learning moment as you go through the scorecard. And then two, where is our current benchmark of where we're at. And as a coach I tell people I don't ever really care where your score is. Because we yeah traditionally we'd like
Chris Duprey
0:16:35
to score to go to the right. But let's say somebody leaves, something happens, you know a videographer quits or whatever, content manager leaves. Your score might get reduced. Sometimes you might score too high and then realize and so so there's adjustments but the idea is in these planning sessions we set the score and after we do that we go over what your three to five focus areas are gonna be they're gonna do a couple things one they're gonna give you
Chris Duprey
0:17:17
very clear activities that you need to do. And third, they're gonna be tied into moving you through the scorecard, which again, gives you the skills, the habits, all the things that you need to master as you go and bring in those customers into your organization.
Alex Winter
0:17:35
Yeah, that makes total sense. And you said, you mentioned the word accountability earlier and I feel like having the scorecard associates like actual numbers and data with us so that like you actually have a benchmark right to assess where you stand and what room there is for improvement and what's working and what's not so you have a
Chris Duprey
0:17:51
clear picture right now listen at the beginning of these things you have to have the right ground rule set like this has to be a truth zone right where we are sitting there and we're saying all the things that were holding back and then you really need an arbitrator on the scorecard right so when i'm coaching clients on the final person that's picking score
Chris Duprey
0:18:12
okay because i see two things that happen you either have folks that are so hyper critical they'll never score themselves above a five and then you have folks that live in where the best things since sliced bread.
Alex Winter
0:18:28
Up in the clouds, yeah.
Chris Duprey
0:18:29
And they're like. 10, 10. Yeah, they're at 10 and you're like, you don't have a videographer yet. Or any videos produced, right? But so.
Alex Winter
0:18:40
Yeah, and some of that's subjective, of course, right.
Chris Duprey
0:18:42
But that's why there's conversation, because the best thing, so I've been doing planning sessions for the last four, five years, right Yeah, there's two sections that I love the vision because that's where we get to like dream Why are we why do we even do all these things? how does all this apply to to the owner to the leaders to everybody else is there and
Chris Duprey
0:19:04
Then the scorecard and the scorecard is because this is where as a coach I Get to help facilitate conversations that may not be happening regularly. Because in the knife fight that everybody's in, nobody has the time to sit there and really assess well how well is our team leaning into all the learning and training that we've given them. It may come up, but it's likely not going to come up as much as what's happening in sales or This big client issue that just came like there's always right a reason so these 90-day planning sessions
Chris Duprey
0:19:49
Which by the way we do these quarterly so every 90 days I was gonna ask you about that when the result is like how long are we to is it quarterly so what are we saying? Okay, and and we can get into some of that, but the idea is every 90 days We're checking in on the vision how we how we track into that But because that should be Why we've decided to change
Chris Duprey
0:20:11
The way that we operate we shouldn't just do it because Chris or Alex or Bob or Marcus said it's super fun z's Right it is fun, but that should not be the reason should not be the reason why. It's just like, listen, when I talk about AI to people, I'm like, you shouldn't use AI because it's cool. You should use it for some outcome that you're trying to get to. Right. Right. It's another tool. It's a tool. Right. And we can get into that later. But the idea is we get to reassess that. And then we go into the scorecard and we talk about how we're doing. Right. There's other stuff, you know, when we're talking about second, third, fourth, fifth,
Chris Duprey
0:20:53
we're going to go do what I call after action reviews of the previous 90 days. If you're familiar with Agile or Scrum, it would be called like a retro, like a retrospective on those things. But it's, hey, what worked, what didn't, what we learned, and we have these discussions. Now let's talk about why 90 days.
Alex Winter
0:21:13
Yeah, that was going to be my next question. Yeah, why is it 90 days?
Chris Duprey
0:21:17
So a couple reasons. You want, so let's go, let's just like rip the band-aid. Why? Because the other business coaching methodologies that we've seen, scaling up, EOS, and some of the others, they all worked in 90 day cycles, and it works.
Chris Duprey
0:21:36
Now, why does it work? It works because it's doable chunks, it's measurable time. It's not too long that you lose focus and it's not too short that you can't get anything done. So I really like 90-day cycles.
Alex Winter
0:21:50
Yeah, and it usually correlates with most businesses running quarterly cycles anyway.
Chris Duprey
0:21:54
Sure, and again, if you're tracking, so let's go back to like, and those customers really focused on like, sales and marketing and success, right?
Chris Duprey
0:22:01
Sure.
Chris Duprey
0:22:02
It's really easy to look at a month's worth of stats and be happy or sad. So true.
Chris Duprey
0:22:07
And you could make, like, but they fluctuate too much.
Chris Duprey
0:22:10
They do. When you look at a quarter, you can start to see some trends, you get 13 weeks of data. It's just a better sized chunk of data to be looking at. Right. Right.
Chris Duprey
0:22:20
Now that makes sense. And we just had Marcus on the show recently in talking about certain industries and companies have off-season
Alex Winter
0:22:23
So depending on what month you're looking at it might be The worst month of your fiscal year because that's when you have your dip So like you're making decisions based off of a month that may not be really accurate and telling the story of the whole picture right, yeah, and so so we do these every 90 days and The idea is that we get an assessment we're always
Chris Duprey
0:22:40
looking at where we're at. We're always tracking how things are going and we're getting a new score all the time. The other side is that most of the ways to improve your skills, your habits, all the stuff is going to change. It's going to shift a little bit. So we need to go work on this for a little bit but then we got to focus over here for now. So these 90-day windows
Alex Winter
0:23:12
allow us to do that. That makes a ton of sense, yeah. So, after you map out the 90 days, you go through this full day, this workshop, what can business owners and what can people that do this expect as a result, or as they start to move forward and implement
Alex Winter
0:23:27
this first quarterly plan?
Chris Duprey
0:23:30
Yeah, so I mean, a lot of it's gonna depend on where they start from, right? So...
Alex Winter
0:23:36
I know that there's so many different industries,
Chris Duprey
0:23:38
so just generally high level speaking, yeah. So the idea is because everybody understands what the heck we're doing, you don't run into as many roadblocks or hiccups along the way, right? So when done correctly, you achieve, you get your focus areas done, you see the gains.
Chris Duprey
0:24:00
You know, we have very specific things in our typical journey that while they might differ for some folks, I really want to make sure we've built the habit of publishing consistently, that we've got a backlog of content produced so that we never miss three articles a week as an example.
Chris Duprey
0:24:18
Right.
Chris Duprey
0:24:19
But so we start doing that. But if I'm the CEO, what should I expect? That the investment you're making is working because people are doing the thing and not resisting it. That's the thing. That's huge. That's the thing. Yeah, ROI. That's what it's all about. But it is, if there's only one thing, it is you remove the resistance because you've educated everybody and everybody knows
Alex Winter
0:24:44
how they fit into at least the plan as it starts. Sure, that makes sense. And you, you work with a ton of clients like we have established earlier here in the in the conversation, and I know you have your finger on the pulse here. So what, in your experiences, what have you seen from like a company that does an alignment day versus a company that doesn't in regards to like, results and how quickly things
Alex Winter
0:25:07
ramp up? Do you have like a
Chris Duprey
0:25:08
comparison? I'll give you I'll give you one that's in going to be in the book works in Patrick accounting. Okay, they were a client of mine like two or three years ago. Before we mandated that you start with online today. And there was a ton of resistance at first. And it just didn't work. Like it was, you know, CEO, CEO, or were into it. But the whole team wasn't. And so we stopped. It was one of those like, hey, no,
Chris Duprey
0:25:41
now is not the time for y'all to do this. So back in December of last year, Matt and Mike came back to me, we're like, hey, we're ready, we wanna do it, let's talk. And so I said, great, we're gonna start with alignment day, right?
Alex Winter
0:25:58
Yeah.
Chris Duprey
0:25:58
And they were really the first full-blown alignment day the way that we just described it and We're so it's what it's September right now. It's all about nine months into what they're doing They've redone both their companies websites Their content manager is consistently producing three articles a week for both sites with a huge backlog They did they did just have to hire a new videographer, but the sales team is using content is
Chris Duprey
0:26:23
role-playing is taking feedback they're doing call watch parties are doing all the things that one needs to do to get to mastery of endless customers now so instead of focusing on all these basic things now we're like okay great what are the self selection tools that we can make to help people become more aware of us what are the conversion rate optimization things so that we can really get the websites cooking.
Chris Duprey
0:26:54
And that's where we want to be.
Chris Duprey
0:26:56
But if you asked Matt Patrick, the CEO, if you didn't do alignment day, would you be here? He would tell you no. He would say it took me going to Memphis and sitting in their conference room with them and making everybody literally put their cell phones on a table in the back of the room so that we were all focused for the whole day. Wow.
Chris Duprey
0:27:11
That's right. Okay.
Alex Winter
0:27:13
And that's what we did.
Chris Duprey
0:27:14
Yeah. And one, I mean, the proof is in the pudding because you didn't do the alignment day previously. And it didn't work. And it didn't pan out and now you're nine months in and it seems to be tracking. And they're on fire. Yeah.
Chris Duprey
0:27:24
Yeah.
Alex Winter
0:27:25
fire yeah yeah they will be a case study for both their companies was one case study right the WK study some that well percent
Chris Duprey
0:27:34
in an industry that I would argue is not super sexy and people like it's one of those industries that people by when somebody else's messed up or they've grown into hey I need to buy I
Chris Duprey
0:27:49
need to
Chris Duprey
0:27:50
add on the services right right so it's not it's not like a home improvement where I need to add on these services, right? So it's not like a home improvement where everybody's always looking for that information. Sure.
Chris Duprey
0:28:03
Right? They're gonna have great success with them as customers because of the way they started. That's incredible. Are there any other stories maybe you could share of people that have had success?
Alex Winter
0:28:12
They had the alignment day and it was like, that was the beginning of their journey. Yeah, I mean, again, there's tons of companies,
Chris Duprey
0:28:21
but I would just say one of my favorite things was going through an alignment they get the whole sales team there and Asked one of the question like hey What was the last thing that you bought and and somebody I think it was a generator or something there like no I knew exactly what I wanted when I went in so I just went and bought the thing I'm like okay, so you're the anomaly right?
Chris Duprey
0:28:42
Then I start talking about the big five. And this salesperson from earlier that was like, no, I just knew what I wanted. And he's like, so I did everything that you just said actually, I just didn't think about it. He's like, I looked up how much these things cost.
Chris Duprey
0:28:59
And then I looked up what could go wrong. That's how they figured out their. Right, so, but it was this really funny, like he tried to resist at first, and then as we went through it, he sat there and was like, oh.
Alex Winter
0:29:20
Oh, I did do that, oh.
Chris Duprey
0:29:21
This is, and then he's like, oh. Well, but it was this great, it's like, oh my God, this is what our customers do. And that's the moment. And that was the coach, I just get to sit there and like try to hide the smile on my face,
Chris Duprey
0:29:35
because I'm like, yeah, you get it now.
Alex Winter
0:29:40
Yeah.
Alex Winter
0:29:41
Wow.
Alex Winter
0:29:42
Very cool.
Alex Winter
0:29:43
So for people out there watching and listening, what would you say is like the one thing from this conversation today that they should take away? Obviously alignment days are critical if you want to implement endless customers, but what's like that one thing that they should really take away from what we've been talking about?
Chris Duprey
0:30:00
You have to get all of your customer facing humans together and you have to educate them why this is the strategy and the philosophy that you're going with. And you may be a preacher to the world but nobody's gonna listen to you in your hometown.
Chris Duprey
0:30:18
Facts.
Chris Duprey
0:30:19
So whether it is a coach from Impact or a coach from one of our partners, you need a coach to guide you through an effective alignment day so that you start correctly. Well said Chris, thanks for sharing your stories and your insights on this. This has been a really great conversation. I love having you on the show. Thanks man. Yeah, all right we'll see you again soon, right? Yeah, okay.
Chris Duprey
0:30:40
I think after a coach swap. Sounds good. Well for everybody out there watching,
Alex Winter
0:30:44
listening, this is Endless Customers. I'm your host Alex Winter. We'll see you on listening, this is Endless Customers. I'm your host Alex Winter. We'll see you on
Chris Duprey
0:30:47
the next video.
About This Episode
Running a growing business can often feel like a constant push and pull. You’re doing a lot of things right, but there’s always a new challenge on the horizon. Launching a new initiative or strategy can be one of those challenges. How do you get your whole company on the same page when bringing in new ideas and principles? The stakes are high, and misalignment can lead to wasted time, resources, and worse—missed opportunities.
In this episode of Endless Customers, Alex Winter sat down with Chris Duprey, Principal Coach at IMPACT, to dig deep into this issue. Chris has worked with countless businesses to optimize their marketing, sales, and overall strategy. In this episode, he shares why getting everyone aligned—leadership, sales, marketing, even operations—isn't just important. It’s essential if you want your next big idea to stick.
So, how do you make sure your team is tracking toward the same goals, especially when there’s resistance or confusion? The good news is that the solution is simpler than you think: alignment days.
The Struggle to Get Everyone on Board
Imagine this: you have an exciting new initiative that you know will drive results—maybe it’s a new approach to customer service, a pivot in your marketing strategy, or a complete shift in how you sell. You’re ready to implement, but there’s one big hurdle. How do you get everyone to care about it as much as you do?
"You're likely not doing the majority of the stuff that's in Endless Customers," Chris said. "So, we have to get everybody...and when I mean everybody, I mean everybody in the organization aligned around this new thing."
Getting buy-in across the entire company isn't just about giving the green light from the top down. Leadership can't just say, "This is what we're doing, now go do it." Chris pointed out how easy it is for people to resist if they don’t understand why things are changing. And that’s a recipe for failure.
Why Should They Care?
People aren’t robots. They need to feel connected to the why behind the strategy. Why are we changing direction? Why does this new initiative matter? "Think about when people resist or don’t fully engage," Chris explained. "It's because they don’t understand."
The lack of understanding or fear of change can create confusion and hesitation. Chris emphasized the importance of empathy. The moment your team understands the purpose behind the change and how it impacts their role, the faster you'll see real buy-in.
And it’s not just leadership that needs to be on board. "Sales has to be aligned, leadership has to be aligned, marketing has to be aligned...everyone has to be aligned," Alex pointed out.
Why Your Business Needs an Alignment Day
So, how do you create that alignment? That’s where alignment days come in.
An alignment day isn’t just about sitting everyone down and giving a presentation on the new strategy. It’s about creating a deeper understanding across all levels of your organization. "The first half of the day is really about getting buy-in, removing fears, worries, and doubts," Chris explained. This is the time to answer the questions that people might be too afraid to ask and to make sure they understand why this change is necessary.
In the second half of the day, things get practical. Once the team has a strong grasp of the why, you move into the how. "Now that we get it, how do we apply this?" Chris said. This part of the day is dedicated to planning how the new initiative will be rolled out across different departments.
By the end of the day, the entire team is not only on the same page but excited and empowered to execute the new strategy.
The Magic of One Team, One Dream
A key element of successful alignment is making sure everyone—from leadership to sales reps—feels like they’re part of one unified team. "It’s one team, one dream," Alex emphasized. When people are united around a shared goal, things move faster and more smoothly.
But it’s not just about speed. It’s about making sure everyone is contributing toward the same objective. When each department is moving in its own direction, chaos ensues. Chris pointed out that often, leadership can have a visionary idea, but if it doesn’t trickle down effectively, execution falls apart.
"If leadership doesn’t align with the rest of the team, then there’s a disconnect," Chris said. And that disconnect can lead to failed initiatives, frustrated employees, and wasted resources.
From Buy-in to Accountability
Once your team is aligned, it’s time to focus on accountability. Chris stressed that without proper follow-through, even the most inspiring alignment day won’t create lasting change.
"The make or break in this situation really is accountability," Chris said. It's not enough to just be excited on day one. How do you track progress and ensure everyone is sticking to the plan?
One way to do this is through what Chris referred to as a scorecard. After the alignment day, the team continues to monitor progress, track key performance indicators (KPIs), and make adjustments where necessary. Chris mentioned that with IMPACT’s scorecard used for clients, it’s very common for initial scores to be low. Through work and consistent effort, businesses see massive improvement. Regular check-ins with the scorecard are made throughout the year.
This ongoing evaluation is critical because it provides the team with a clear picture of what’s working and what isn’t. It keeps everyone accountable and ensures that momentum doesn’t fizzle out after the first 90 days.
The Reason for 90-Day Plans
Chris explained why this timeframe of 90 days is so effective for businesses. Monthly evaluations can be too short, and yearly goals too broad. "When you look at a quarter, you can start to see some trends," Chris said. The 90-day cycle gives businesses enough time to gather meaningful data and adjust their strategy without reacting to short-term fluctuations.
This approach helps businesses make smarter, data-driven decisions rather than reacting emotionally to short-term results. Chris pointed out that some companies see quick wins, while others take more time. But regardless of the industry, the key is consistent effort and adjusting as you go.
Results Speak for Themselves
So, what kind of results can businesses expect from alignment days? Chris shared the story of one company that had tried to launch Endless Customers on their own but struggled for months. After going through an alignment day with IMPACT, their results skyrocketed. "Now, nine months later, they're on fire," Chris said.
These success stories aren’t just lucky breaks—they’re the result of intentional planning, execution, and accountability. Chris has seen firsthand how alignment days set the foundation for long-term success. "The proof is in the pudding," Alex added, emphasizing how the difference is night and day between companies that invest in alignment and those that don’t.
The One Thing: Alignment is the Foundation
So, what's the main takeaway from this conversation? Alignment is the foundation of any successful business initiative. Without it, even the best ideas can fall flat. "You have to get everyone on board, from leadership to sales to marketing," Chris said. And once you have that buy-in, accountability and consistency are what keep the momentum going.
If you’re serious about making big changes in your business, an alignment day might be the missing piece. It’s not just about getting your team to understand the new strategy—it’s about creating a culture where everyone is pulling in the same direction and excited about the future.
So, what’s your next move? If you're ready to take your business to the next level, it might be time to bring your team together for an alignment day and start creating lasting change.
Connect with Chris Duprey
Chris Duprey is a sought-after speaker and business coach with over two decades of leadership experience.
Get to know Chris through his IMPACT bio page
Connect with Chris on LinkedIn
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